On Facebook, my sister posted a comment about the nature of humanity and how different political groups tend to view people as either basically good or basically bad. The conversation inherently became about the different approaches to social problems by the government, and I began writing a response and realized that it was never going to fit into the comments box, so I decided to post my thoughts here. Below are some but certainly not all the reasons I believe that the Federal government shouldn't be involved in dealing with social problems:
1) The cumbersome and bureaucratic nature of the Fed is not conducive to the fast-paced and constantly-shifting needs of the populace. Hurricane Katrina was a perfect example of this. The Fed was never designed to be a quick-reaction force; in fact our system of checks-and-balances was specifically designed to prevent that type of Federal government. The reality is that the only group in Washington designed for that type of situation is the military, which is not supposed to be operating and running operations in/for States. They're not quite there yet, but I have seen first-hand that we're not very far from that scenario.
2) The Fed's response to every problem is to throw money at it, which has proven time and again to be a losing philosophy. Remember "give me a fish, teach me to fish"? In point of fact, there's not much else it COULD do, because as originally designed its function was pretty purely legislative. Congress passes laws and creates budgets. So their only method for tackling social issues is to pass laws to combat them and budget to fund the programs these laws create. Does anyone look at Social Security as a successful program? But Congress is never going to fix it, because it's a huge source of income for the Fed and it rattles too many cages when anyone steps forward in an effort to do so. That leads me into my next point.
3) Unfortunately, we have a system where politics has become a career for many of the people in Washington, and instead of seeing themselves as civil servants they see themselves as elitist leaders who must guide the nation through every turn. So these people promise all sorts of money and benefits to voters in an attempt to buy another four years in Congress. The more they get for their constituents, the more dependent their constituents become, and the more sure they are to be elected to keep the benefits coming. It's a vicious cycle that has very evidently created a burgeoning welfare state that in just the past few months has grown into a disgustingly-bloated trillion-dollar investment in failure. And try ending a massive program that generates tons of revenue for the government. It virtually never happens, unless that program is tied to the military, which sadly is one of the few Constitutionally-defined responsibilities of the Fed to fund and maintain.
4) The Fed is not poised to help anyone at an individual level. Issues that are small in scale or affect different people differently cannot effectively be fixed by wide-sweeping legislation. The Fed usually hits issues from a 30,000-foot view, so if the problem isn't "one size fits all", there's really no chance that everyone is going to be helped. And honestly, what problems are generic enough that a massive Federal program is going to fix them?
5) As a big believer in the 10th Amendment and the limits that it was designed to create on the Fed, I firmly believe that all these social programs are unconstitutional. If States want to enact their own social and welfare programs, then that's for the States to decide. People have a lot more power and control over what their States do by design. The Fed was supposed to be a quorum of the States, which is why state legislatures used to elect Senators. Not to get off on a different tangent, though.
These are just some of the reasons I hold the opinion I do on this. If one were to begin invoking religion, I would challenge that Jesus never said "Give to Cesar what is Cesar's to make sure those tax dollars get into the welfare system". I firmly believe that the Bible strongly advocates individual responsibility and real, personal love for your neighbor. Not the impersonal, bureaucratic systems that the Fed creates to tackle these issues. I just can't accept that Jesus would be satisfied with us waiting for a broken system to get fixed in Washington to help the poor and needy.
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